January 19, 1934 – Hammond Patents His Organ

On this date in 1934, Laurens Hammond received a patent for an “electrical musical instrument”. This instrument would go on to become one of the most commercially successful electronic musical instruments. Even today, Hammond organs are ubiquitous, and their sound is iconic.

Inventor Laurens Hammond designed and manufactured a variety of instruments: clocks, an
automatic shuffling bridge table, and eyeglasses for viewing 3-D film. Then, in 1933, he bought
a used piano and began to design an electronic organ.

Unlike Theremin, Trautwein, and Martenot–and the other electronic-instrument inventors who
were motivated by the adventure of invention and a fascination with discovering new ways to
make music Hammond was motivated by profit through sales. His goal was to sell organs to a
mass market. Like most businesspeople with a similar goal, he approached the problems of
design, manufacture, marketing, and sales with a cool-headed eye toward reducing expenses
and increasing revenue.

The designs for his organs reflected economy in manufacture. For example, after analyzing
concave pedal-boards in other organs, Hammond leveled the pedalboard in his design and
omitted the pedals that were played the least often. The sounds in his organ were generated by
additive-synthesis tone-wheels that were refinements of the mechanisms that Cahill had used in
the Telharmonium.

The Model A organ appeared in June 1935. Hammond’s marketing was pervasive and intense,
initially aimed at churches throughout the country. But his organ’s distinctive sound was soon
found to have just the right quality for jazz and blues–and eventually for rock. [1]

But the organ that most of us are familiar with is the iconic Hammond B-3.

…by far the most popular model was the Hammond B-3, the first one of which came into being [in 1954]. It is an organ with two 61-note keyboards and a range of built-in effects, including chorus mode, percussion, vibrato and adjustable attack and decay effects. It has a set of foot pedals covering two octaves and two sets of nine stops or drawbars for each keyboard.

The B-3 has a specially designed external tone cabinet, the Leslie, which had rotating speakers in order to produce the vibrato effects of the organ. Taking the instrument on the road has always represented something of a challenge, because with its solid walnut frame, four legs, a base and a built-in stool, it weighs 400 pounds.

As Alan Morgan noted in his liner note to the 1963 Verve album, “Any Number Can Win”, Jimmy Smith bought a secondhand hearse in which to transport his B-3. But because, in the USA, such vehicles are not permitted to use the freeways unless they are actually taking a deceased person to the burial ground, when Jimmy and his sidemen went on the road, they dressed themselves in mourning attire. [2]

Notes

[1] “The electronic century part I: Beginnings.” Electronic Musician. Vol. 16, Iss. 2 (2000):74-84
[2] “The History of the Hammond.” Crescendo & Jazz Music. Vol. 41, Iss. 4 (2004):25

Tags: B-3, Hammond, History, On This Date, patent